Priceline Group looks at growing Cuba operation - spokeswoman

Priceline Group looks at growing Cuba operation - spokeswoman
By Jeffrey Dastin, Reuters
September 20, 2015

(Reuters) - Priceline Group Inc is looking at ways to grow its operation
in Cuba in light of new rules the United States announced Friday that
ease trade and investment restrictions with the Communist-ruled island.

Priceline Group, the most profitable online travel services company in
the world, is evaluating regulations that allow U.S. companies to set up
bank accounts and an office in Cuba, its Vice President of Global
Communications Leslie Cafferty told Reuters on Sunday.
"We are exploring all of these new options and hope to have operations
up and running soon," she said.
The company has already made moves to expand its business to Cuba. Its
subsidiary Kayak, a so-called "meta-search" engine that takes listings
from other search tools on the web, currently shows customers hotel and
flight listings for Cuba.
While Cafferty said Friday's regulations "don't change much" in part
because U.S. citizens remain barred from leisure travel on the island,
she said they could help pave the way for Americans to book travel
directly on the group's largest and most global subsidiary, Booking.com.
The U.S. rules come as Washington and Havana inch toward normal
relations after more than half a century of hostility that followed
Cuba's 1959 revolution. The two countries restored diplomatic ties and
reopened embassies earlier this summer.
(Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in New York; editing by Ralph Boulton)

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